Monday, June 11, 2007

I was looking for something on my other blog archives when I saw a stuffed pork loin I made last year. Then I decided to make something similar, using beef instead.There’s a dish here called “bife à rolê” that my husband likes a lot – steaks are filled with chopped carrots, bacon and green olives, secured with toothpicks and cooked in a simple broth (most people here use a pressure cooker for that). It’s similar to bracciola, except for the tomato sauce.I created a giant “bife à rolê”, stuffed with farofa and served it with fresh homemade tomato sauce – click here and here if you’re interested in my other recipes with farofa.Although I thought the farofa had disappeared at the end, João loved this dish.

Make the farofa: heat olive oil in a small saucepan, over medium heat. Add the bacon and cook until golden. Add the onion and cook until golden as well. Add the breadcrumbs, olives and parsley, season with salt and pepper, mix well and remove from heat. Set aside to cool. Place the steak open on a chopping board and season with salt and pepper. Spread the farofa on the center and roll the steak, closing all the sides so the stuffing won’t fall out. Secure with cooking string:

In a large saucepan, heat butter over high heat until it’s melted. Add the stuffed steak and cook until all the sides are evenly and nicely browned.Add the boiling water (or stock, if using), season with a bit of salt, close the lid and cook until the beef is tender – I used a pressure cooker (in a hurry!).Remove from the pan, cut the string and remove it.Heat the tomato sauce and spread it over the steak.Slice it when serving.

Delicious and quite healthy to boot. It reminded me of the Italian saltimboca my father makes quite often with sage, prosciutto and cheese and I managed to find a similar recipe here http://www.recipesource.com/ethnic/europe/italian/03/rec0369.htmlSometimes he serves it with tomato sauce like you did here, sometimes with a mushroom sauce... either way, it´s very good, give it a go if you haven´t tried it yet.

I love anything with olives. I've made a German variation on this, rouladen. The steak is stuffed with pickles or carrots, then cooked on stove in its own gravy. I like the idea of pressure cooking; it does make everything tender but quick.

I have not made beef rolls like these before, so I should give it a try, esp. since I like to do a lot of things in the oven these days because of the cold weather. p/s: welcome back. I missed you! I hope you had a good vacation.

I'm always in trouble when I visit you before lunch, Patricia. Now you've got me hungry! This looks delicious, tender and hearty.

Probably using a low-sodium beef broth would help solve some of the salt issues you mentioned. I'm finding that using low-sodium chicken broth when recipes call for it also cuts back on the tendency for the dish to turn out tasting like chicken soup.

Rose, farofa is so popular here and the possibilities of flavors are endless.

Terry, that tip is really good - I don't use broth to make this but I know many people do. Great info!

Veron, thank you, sweetie!

Sarah, I always get the feeling that people abroad are scared of using a pressure cooker. It's such a common thing for us here - we use it all the time. For instance, one of the most famous Brazilian dishes are rice and beans, and the beans are NEVER canned beans. We use dry beans and cook them in the pressure cooker.Good to know you like it too!

I plan to give this a try. It gets so hot here in Texas that I usually cook with a pressure cooker. It is quick and doesn't heat the house up like an oven. Some people are scared of them but I grew up canning with my mom. I decided to start back in canning again with the price of food going up.